Is it time for term limits for the Copyright Office’s Register?

The latest Register of the US Copyright Office is retiring after 14 years on …

Another argument for term limits surfaced on Capitol Hill on Monday. This proposal isn't for elected officials or judges, but for the Register of the United States Copyright Office, which catalogs and keeps track of copyrighted materials. In a new report on agency, Public Knowledge says the Office's boss should not be allowed to serve for more than a decade.

"The discussions surrounding copyright policy impact more constituencies than ever before," A Copyright Office for the 21st Century recommends. All the more reason for the Register to have a "nuanced understanding" of all the stakeholders affected by copyright rules.

"Unfortunately, each year that the Register is head of the Copyright Office makes it harder to maintain that type of connection," PK notes. "Furthermore, it increases the possibility that he or she will favor one or more existing stakeholders groups over newly emergent ones. Effective policy making requires the regular infusion of new blood and new ideas."

Thus, term limits would "make political appointees more accountable and reduce the possibility of capture by one or more existing stakeholder groups," the reform group's paper contends.

Getting too cozy

The recommendation comes as the Copyright Office's current Register, Marybeth Peters, announced her retirement effective December 31 of this year. Peters has served as the Register since 1994, and has worked at the Copyright Office since 1966. The only Register to beat her longevity record was Thorvald Solberg, who was given the job by the McKinley administration in 1897, and stuck with it until his retirement at the age of 78 in 1930.

We spoke with PK's Gigi Sohn and report author Michael Weinberg, who agreed that term limits isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of issue. For example, critics of limits for California state legislators contend that the stricture tends to give the advantage to lobbyists, who are far more familiar with the political process than the steady wave of newcomers who arrive in Sacramento every year.

But the current system at the Copyright Office "lets the Register get cozy with one side of the industry," PK's Gigi Sohn told us in a telephone conversation. And that's a serious problem given the heightened role that the Office has enjoyed since the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998.

Congress has now given the Register an advisory role on copyright related issues. The official is now guaranteed a seat on the advisory panel of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, and the US Trade Representative must consult with the Register on reports on the state of intellectual property protection abroad.

PK's report also calls for the Copyright Office's online system to become much more searchable, especially for works published prior to 1978 (which are presently only tracked via a card catalog system), and for visual documents, such as pictures and photographs.

"Copyright protects far more than the written word," the survey notes. "Until it is as easy to find the registration for a visual work as it is to find the registration for a written work, both visual artists and the public are disadvantaged."

Matthew Lasar
Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Emailmatthew.lasar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@matthewlasar